The leverage of global organizations and tools for new product development

Summary form only given. Advancements in new product development processes are being driven by joint ventures, alliances, multi-location development, value added re-manufacturing, outsourcing, mergers, re-engineering, and worldwide marketing of products. These business trends have resulted in large high technology organizations and development projects that cross location, company, country and cultural boundaries. To address the latest business trends and NPD requirements the applications and tools supporting new product development processes must incorporate high speed integrated communications technology. They should support the development process seamlessly world-wide using software with rapid application development on multiple platforms, easy decision making across remote locations, linking to other companies, project controls that are consistent across complex diverse organizations, security with global control capabilities, and workgroup collaborative capabilities in the global environment. For NPD applications to be successfully deployed they must have timely updating and fast access to business and project data. Key capabilities include consistent workgroup tools that interface to multiple teams at multiple locations, centralized project tracking and control that spans multiple sites, and a “prescribed” new product development process that aligns with supporting collaborative applications. All these tactical requirements must be structured to support strategic corporate level goals